1. sure, why not...  I assume you're not talking Exodia-like auto-win if you get them all though

2. sure

3. YES.

4. yes

5. definitely

6. I like the idea, but I warn that doing so means rebuilding the combat of the game from scratch will take for freaking ever to get (mostly) balanced again ;_;  Until I went on the forums, I had no idea this game was rock/paper/scissors, so I definitely get the desire for it.  I'm just saying that this alone will suck up a ton of time to do.

7. definitely

8. definitely.  My favorite faction is AL, so of course I want better culture lol

9. would be nice.

Good point, it could easily become either OP or worthless. Perhaps it would be easier to balance if individual artifact fragments were inert and can only function when assembled or the only benefit artifacts give are to some sort of 'prestige stat' which would effect diplomacy.

Since the game would be based on a new engine, the devs would need to work from scratch anyway, although I agree that working out how the new system would work would take a lot of time in the conceptual phase. I think this change would also be easier to balance because there are no damage modifiers and therefore, each unit can be balanced separately without buffing/nerfing other units as a side-effect.

Having looked at the weapon types that you proposed for the fourth race, I like your ideas and can see that they would work well with my own. I really like the concept of rift beams and gravity pulse guns, since it gives each weapon type more unique gameplay effects.

I would support the idea of the chasers being a new race if as part of the lore, the 'evil' subfactions (TR, AL, VL) get wiped out since they are unwilling to work with anyone else, while the 'good' subfactions begin to work together so closely that they merge into a single faction. A multispecies 'Unity' with the technology of the Vasari and the industry of the TEC might be the only thing that can make a stand against the approaching threat. This is the only way that I can think of that would allow the chasers to be their own faction without being underwhelming.

One last point on titans: since titans have been added, they are definitely here to stay. But to make them more balanced, I think they should be more vulnerable cap ships. Cap ships should, if not kill them outright, be able to shut down most titan abilities and so frigates would be more valuable at all stages of the game.

If they start from scratch on the mechanics, they will have to design all gameplay from scratch.  The game fundamentally is its combat system.  This is an RTS after all.  Change it too much and it shouldn't bear the title of sequel; it should just be a new (albeit very fun) game.  I'm all for weapons being more elaborate like lasers and autocannons being AA/point defense guns or Pulse Beams doing bonus damage against enemy X, or what have you.  Phase Missiles were a great idea that was overpowered because nothing else in the game had an effect like that.

Again, I'm concerned about changing it too much by mushing the "good" factions together.  I want people to be able to play as just Advent or Vasari or TEC.  But I also want to see the new guys get show time as a balanced race so they can be used online.  I also don't just want two races.  Four races allows more diversity than two does.  I don't mind the TR getting wiped out (they'd never survive alone anyways; they have no stable economy), but the AL...  Maybe I'm just biased here, but I feel like they could at least survive for a bit.  The AR+VR would certainly be willing to ally and the TL would happily fund their war and bombard the chasers with its Novalith horde, but woe betide any non-human that tries to enter trader space.

Again, the Chasers don't have to be stupid OP.  They just have to be something that could have taken down the Vasari Empire in the lore (which I believe my suggestion accounts for).  Besides, if we want Sins II to have a better MP scene, we need it to be balanced or it'll just be banned.  If someone wants to play SP against an impossible opponent, there would surely be mods for that.  Heck, one of the first mods I'm sure we'd see is one that pits amped up Chasers against the Trinity Alliance as a singular faction.

I can see what you are saying, Sins 2 would have to be recognizably similar with the same sorts of ship classes and broadly similar combat. But I don't think the armour type mechanic is crucial to the franchise.

I get the appeal of playing with just TEC, Vasari or Advent, it appeals to me as well. You also have good ideas about the Chaser faction, but 4 factions is really hard to balance for MP and I'm not convinced that the Chasers can be portrayed as merely one faction among several.

I didn't see your suggested explanation for the lore so I can't comment on that. However, these Chasers spread out from a single planet and consumed the entire Vasari empire staggeringly fast without anybody ever figuring out what was going on. The Vasari in-game are mere refugees yet they are powerful enough to go head-to-head with two other space civilizations in their prime at the same time. Yet even they have no option other than flee. If the individual factions including the TEC and Advent could engage the chasers in battle with some success then the Vasari Empire would have easily contained and destroyed the threat when it first appeared. Remember, the Vasari have made no technological progress at all since their exodus. The Vasari titans are actually ancient ships that date back to before the exodus. The game and its lore surrounds the chasers with so much hype that it would be hard to reveal them without it being anticlimactic. The only alternative that I can think of is to introduce the chasers as their own faction but make these chasers nothing more than a light forward-scouting force that is well ahead of the main army. Perhaps this scouting fleet is actually Vasari in origin but the ships have been twisted and rebuilt to a new purpose. Thus the real threat remains unrevealed.

Personally, I don't imagine the chasers to be a faction at all. I don't think they even physically exist. The story sounds too much like a metaphor. The phrase 'you can't run away from the past forever' comes to mind. The threat emerged from a single planet and expanded at a rate faster than that of the Vasari Dark Fleet even when traveling through phase space. And this threat immediately wiped out any planet it came into contact with. That doesn't sound like a fleet or any military force.

Obviously this isn't suitable for MP though.

I like this idea.

I wasn't proposing the removal of counters. Instead, I was thinking of a way to implement the counters differently. So for example, long-range frigates would rely on high-explosive missiles with poor tracking speed and with a poor accuracy modifier against small targets. This would make them effective mainly against groups of weaker frigates and also structures but ineffective against e.g heavy cruisers and very fast and agile single targets like corvettes.

The Vasari empire and the TEC were both invaded and were at a disadvantage compared to the invaders. The TEC were peaceful and even when confronted with the Vasari and the Advent attacking them on two fronts, they didn't panic but stood their ground. Despite a massive technology and military disadvantage, the TEC could actually fight them both and learn something about them. The much more warlike Vasari wouldn't flee merely because they finally met an equal, they didn't flee from the Advent or militarised TEC. The Vasari empire had all the advantages of the TEC in its prime and had none of the disadvantages and the threat that attacked them was tiny yet the Vasari didn't stand a chance. The TEC were totally unprepared and faced a physically larger threat (the entire Exodus Fleet) and yet they still performed better under invasion. The Vasari 'hard-countered' the TEC by having an actual military and far more advanced technology but this wasn't enough to totally crush them. Whatever hit the Vasari empire was therefore a far bigger threat to them than the Vasari were to the TEC and the Vasari that attacked the TEC were a shadow compared to the Vasari empire.

If the chasers 'hard-counter' Vasari technology like phase drives then the chasers would hard-counter all the other races as well since they are equally reliant on it.

The only way I could see the chasers being able to crush the Vasari by targeting their Achilles' heel without being OP is if the chasers only counter nanotechnology and nothing else.

You raise some major difficulties. I mainly had TEC in mind when I came up with this idea but as you pointed out, the Advent as they currently are don't really fit.

My solution to this would involve Wintercross's suggestion, which I would like to build upon by suggesting some new stats. Each individual ship with a 'size' or 'detectability' stat and an agility stat. The first would be a simple modifier to an enemy's accuracy. The agility stat would effect a ship's turning circle and how easily it can aim at a moving target and/or dodge incoming fire. 

Secondly, I would split the LRF class into 2 new classes: LRFs and destroyers. LRFs have poor tracking speed, a long aim time and poor armour penetration but have very high damage and splash damage. They are very dangerous to clusters of frigates and destroyers when at range but are not effective against heavy cruisers or cap ships due to their much higher armour. The TEC would have high-explosive missiles for this, Vasari would have high-explosive phase missiles and the Advent could have a new ship armed with psionic surge cannons or something.

Since LRFs have to continually track their missiles to the target, fast ships like light frigates can close the gap and negate them. If a LRF receives damage, any missile en route to a target gets disrupted and misses the target. Thus, if light frigates get in close, they can cause LRFs to miss most of their shots so LRFs cannot be used as front like units.

Destroyers would be armed with weapons that have very high armour penetration making them dangerous to heavy cruisers, cap ships, structures and starbases. But their poor tracking speed and long aim time and lack of splash damage makes them very vulnerable to corvettes and SC and light frigates to a lesser degree. Illuminators could fit quite well into this class I think.

Good points. I never before thought of the possibility that the TO saw the Vasari coming before they reached Trader space. It makes sense and it really changes my perspective of the whole thing.

I guess it comes down to what we want the chasers to bring to the game. Most people seem to want an extra race while I was thinking of something more campaign focused. But I don't see how a campaign could be made to be actually interesting and not just a glorified tutorial.

I feel like the advent while in the game lore they did improve facilities but ultimately nothing that affected the CORE of the advent, the physic power of the advent, oh yes when the advent arrived they had the cute little powers, but in 30 years they didn't expand their powers they just re-used the same old physic push and maybe made it pull. Nothing new in the advent powers so this is where they could add balancing, say the advent would begin "transcending" and sometimes some attacks simply phase through due to the ships halfway/temporally transcending into a higher spiritual plane in the ether, but they cant fully do it due to the fragmentation in the core of the unity with the rebel/loyalist split?

Some good quality deathwish coffee after 37 hrs no sleep.

BUT

It was new ideas

The Dark Fleet is the Vasari military, not the chasers. The Vasari in game are supposed to be a mostly civilian migrant fleet.

I would like all the factions remain in game, but for them to do what they were going to do originally; You pick TEC for example, then IN GAME you can split off into Loyalist or Rebel.

I would also like a single player campaign, though lacking that at least give us access to scripting and event triggers so we can make out own.

I have been busy in real life, but August has passed. Has there been any news?

Care Bears.